article appeared in MUFON UFO Journal September 1998
Are circles, landings
that most are not hoaxes
Although some instances of the
phenomenon known as “crop circles” are apparently created by people,
scientific analysis of the
affected plants and soils indicates that slightly more than 90% of formations
tested have a more interesting—and more complex—causation. The BLT
Research Team (John Burke, William. C. Levengood, Nancy Talbott has been
systematically studying plants and soils sampled from crop formations in the
U.S, Canada, England, and several other countries since 1989, and then
comparing these plants and soils to control samples taken at various specific
distances away from the formations, but in the same fields.
results of this research have been published in two peer-reviewed scientific
journals in 1994 and 1995. The 1994 paper1 discussed the plant
abnormalities documented, and the 1995 paper2 presented the finding
of meteoric iron on plant stems and in the soil. A third paper has been
submitted for publication which presents the discovery that observed plant
alterations often follow the well-known Beer-Lambert Principle in physics,3
which describes the absorption of electromagnetic energy by matter.
Williamm. C. Levengood, a Michigan biophysicist with more than 40 years experience
working both in industry and at the University of Michigan, does most of the
laboratory work. He holds a B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from the
University of Toledo, an M.A. is Bioscience from Ball State University, an
M.S. in Biophysics from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. equivalent
based also on work completed at the University of Michigan.
1956 he has published widely in mainstream scientific journals, including
multiple papers in Nature and Science; holds
several patents; and is a member of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science as well as several other professional societies. For
the past 15 years, in addition to pursuing private research interests, he has
worked as a consultant to several seed-growing companies and agricultural
recent years the BLT Research Team has extended its inquiry, discovering that
many of the plant and soil abnormalities found at crop formation Sites are
also present at UFO-trace cases and unusual animal death locations. At the
request of Linda Howe several years ago, Levengood agreed to examine wheat
and pasture grass samples from a mutilation site4 which had been
discovered within 60 ft. of an ovoid area of flattened crops near Garnet, KS.
The wheat stems from the flattened ovoid area revealed a massive incidence of
“expulsion cavities” at the stem nodes, an effect indicating an internal
pressure so sudden and powerful that it literally blew holes through the node
walls as the internal liquid in the plant stems expanded.
were also very significant alterations in the growth rates of seedlings
germinated from the wheat seeds taken from plants in the ovoid’s center,
with a reduction in seedling heights of -35.8%
as compared to the controls. These results are typical of findings
continually obtained at crop formation sites, and strongly suggest rapid
heating such as would be caused by the exposure of the plants to microwave
radiation, as well as exposure to unusual electrical fields.
Although it has been suggested that helicopter downwash might be responsible for the creation of circular flattened areas of crops, Levengood is certain that the effects noted above, as well as the dramatic lengthening of the plant stem node—which was also discovered in this incident—is instead a characteristic of electromagnetic radiation, probably microwave, emanating from the epicenter of the ovoid.
Expulsion cavities, Logan, Utah. Top photo shows expulsion cavities in plant stem nodes (barley) sampled along the south radius of a 58-foot circle (the larger circle). Bottom photo shows control nodes sampled 108 feet to the east of the formation. The sample was taken 8-25-96, two days after the formation was discovered. (Photo used with permission of BLT Research Team.)
Cell wall pits
the pasture grasses sampled immediately around the dead animal were examined
under the microscope, and the results compared with the examination of the
control grasses, the cell wall pits in the plants near the body were found to
be enlarged to more than three times the diameter of the pits in the control
samples. This finding suggested the same sort of rapid heating believed to be
responsible for many of the changes discovered in the wheat samples taken from
the nearby ovoid area, indicating a quite possible link between the two
events, as well as the need for additional research of similar events.
this 1994 Garnet, KS, case the BLT Team has sampled and examined both plants
and soils (as well as occasional anomalous substances) at several dozen
unusual animal death sites (Levengood prefers the term “bovine excision”
Sites) here in the U.S. and in Canada. Several reports5 have been
issued which discuss the findings obtained. Much of the work done on the
grasses usually present at these locations involves a test6 which
looks at specific changes in the cyclic patterns of respiration activity
within the plant cells—specifically the mitochondria.
plants are exposed to increased levels of radiation—in this case microwaves—the
mitochondria are often irreversibly damaged, thus altering their respiration
patterns. It is these respiration patterns which are monitored and which
reveal the mitochondrial damage in plants which have been exposed to unusual
radiation. In case after case these altered respiration cycles have been
documented in the plants sampled at bovine excision sites. Laboratory
simulation, by exposing control grasses to commercially available sources of
microwave radiation, produces the same results. Either microwave radiation—or
an energy extremely similar—is involved.
in recent years extensive soil sampling has been carried out at bovine
excision sites examined by Levengood. In the crop formation research,
soils sampled from within and outside the flattened crop areas have revealed
significantly increased amounts of magnetic material mixed in with the soils;
this finding, too, has been replicated in the unusual animal death cases,
sometimes massively. In a 1997 Colorado case submitted for analysis by
Christopher O’Brien, massive amounts of micron-sized magnetite spheres
were discovered during microscopic examination, particularly at the sampling
site near the head area. The amount of such magnetic particles which might
normally be expected to be present is in the range of 0.4 mg/gram of soil, but
here a count of 284.3 mg/g was found. This count dropped off significantly in
soils sampled farther away from the body, strongly suggesting that highly
unusual magnetic fields had been associated with the event.
Levengood and the BLT Team’s primary interest has been the crop
formation phenomenon, as word of the laboratory results began to reach people
interested in other areas, specific requests to examine plants, soils, and
unusual substances related to other unusual situations began to come in
regularly. In 1995 the “Sightings” TV show, then investigating a number of
apparent UFO-trace cases, asked for analysis of plants, soils, and a number of
unknown substances sampled at several Israeli UFO cases:7 the 1987
Shikmona Beach incident, a 1994 event, and a grass formation found in early
samples from the Shikmona Beach case included a very dark red, almost black,
granular substance mixed in with the clay soil. This substance had an
extremely low melting point, becoming bubbly under the microscope light, and
then hardening back into a black mass of rounded particles once the light had
been turned off. Without more extensive geophysical testing, this substance
remains a mystery.
the 1994 circle formation a white substance found at the center of the event
and a red coating discovered on the stems and leaves of plants sampled in the
circle were both subjected to energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), which
revealed that the white crystals were in fact pure silicon, but without the
“growth lines” characteristic of silicon crystals which have been
thermochemically grown in a laboratory. The red material produced a high iron
peak, but in the presence of so many other elements as to obscure it’s
plant samples from the grass formation at Qadima in 1995 revealed alterations
again consistent with exposure to rather prolonged, localized heating, in
addition to other changes which confirmed the presence of energetic changes
to the plants similar to those observed within many crop formations.
Over the past several years the BLT Team has examined numerous samples of peculiar substances discovered at crop formations, bovine excision sites, and reported UFO-related events. Many of the substances analyzed have turned out to be basically silicates—the most abundant compound on earth. However, the transformation of the silicate materials into highly unusual crystalline forms in these various samples (forms which are entirely uncommon in the published scientific literature of crystallography) is quite remarkable. Earlier in his professional career, Levengood worked for many years with silicate crystals, thus recognizing immediately the uniqueness of many of these samples. The unusualness of the samples themselves, in combination with the curious locations and situations in which they were found, is of great interest.
addition to the discovery of pure silicon at the 1994 Israel location (a
unique finding, to date), silicone—with highly. unusual external forms—has
been discovered repeatedly. Two recent cases include a Netherlands crop
formation (Brummen, Holland, 1997) and a May, 1998, apparent UFO-trace case in
Israel. An unusual form of a soluble silicate8 was discovered in a
1994 Blame, MN. crop formation which may also be UFO-related, and, quite
recently, two extremely unusual silicate substances have been analyzed in
conjunction with two separate abductee experiences here in the U.S.
Analysis of these and many other substances found at crop formations in
many countries, at bovine excision sites in the U.S. and Canada, at
UFO-related trace cases in several countries, and, most recently, two
abduction experiences here in the U.S. are slowly producing a solid scientific
database—facts which clearly indicate certain physical commonalities among
the various events while pointing directly toward the fact that something very
physically real, if as yet completely unrecognized by mainstream science, is “afoot with the cosmos.”
studies are an important aspect of scientific inquiry. In the case of crop
circles, the question has been raised as to whether people—armed with planks
and boards, or rollers, or simply their feet—might be responsible for the
many thousands of formations reported all over the world in the past 15 years
the logistics might argue against such a conclusion, this has been the
solution presented by most of the media for many years. Agronomists and plant
physiologists have speculated that over-fertilization of the crops might be
the culprit; and feeding crows, mating hedgehogs, and crazed prairie dogs have
also been suggested by a number of highly imaginative individuals. In an
effort to examine the more reasonable of these ideas, the BLT Team executed
two separate control studies9 which examined the notion that people
using both boards and a cement roller might be the causative agency, as well
as the effects of 100% over-fertilization on a test crop field.
results were quite clear: manually downing crops with boards or cement
rollers does not produce any of the plant anomalies reported over the years by
the BLT Team. In these control studies the plants did not exhibit any of the
typically observed (always at the statistically significant level) changes
found in more than 90% of the formations sampled from several different
countries. Specifically, these plants from the manmade control formations did
grossly enlarged or elongated plant stem nodes;
marked bending of plant stem nodes;
the presence of “expulsion” cavities at nodal points;
stunted or malformed seed-heads;
markedly significant alterations in seed germination trials (including seeds
which do not germinate at all, or seeds which do germinate but exhibit
severely depressed seed growth, or seeds which do germinate but display
seedling development inconsistent with that which is typical for the species
or variety, or seeds which not only germinate but exhibit markedly increased
robustness and rate of seedling growth).
was bending of the plant stems noted, particularly in a young, immature crop,
within 3-5 days after manual flattening; this effect is due primarily to
gravitropism (the term now used to describe the growth of plant organs in
response to gravity; the old term, “geotropism,” is no longer accurate
since the effect has been observed in zero-gravity experiments with crops in
space). The gravitropism effect occurs much more rapidly than phototropism
(the growth of plant organs in response to light), which occurs much more
slowly, although in a young crop phototropism may play a role when node
bending is observed several weeks after downing the crop. The point here is
that moderate node bending does occur, particularly in an immature crop,
having nothing whatsoever to do with genuine crop formation energies—and
this sort of node-bending is distinguishable from that which has been reported
in the BLT Team’s research reports.
in the control study which examined the effects of over-fertilization on field
crops, the same results were obtained: none of the basic criteria by which the
BLT Research Team identifies genuine crop formations were found—no elongated
nodes, no marked bending, no “expulsion” cavities, no stunted or malformed
seed-heads, and no significant alterations in seed germination trials.
was interesting to find that, although farmers have long thought that
over-fertilization and subsequent violent weather conditions were the causes
of randomly-downed crop regularly found in their fields, not one single stalk
went down in the 100% over-fertilized test strip, in spite of several severe
storms in the test area during the summer this control study was implemented.
fact, it has been known for some time that so-called “lodging”
(randomly-downed crop with no discernable geometric pattern) is related to the
geometric crop circle phenomenon. The BLT Team has done considerable testing
of randomly-downed crops,10 both when found by themselves in fields
and when found in the same fields as geometric formations, discovering the
same basic “energy signature” in the downed plants. The major difference
appears to be in the intensity of the energies involved, with the
randomly-downed crop exhibiting a greater degree of change than that found in
the more visually interesting geometric designs.
complex to blame?
So, real lodging—downed crop
that is due to over-fertilization (which causes over-development of the
seed-head and subsequent weakening of the plant stem) and subsequent weather
damage—can and occasionally does occur; but this cause of randomly-downed
crop is less frequent than is currently recognized. The BLT Team suspects
that, much more frequently, the cause of randomly-downed crop lies with the
energy complex responsible for the more notorious crop circles.
few final facts for the thoughtful reader to consider. Patches of standing
plants found inside many geometric crop formations, as well as massive areas
of standing crop outside the visible formation borders, up to a tested
distance of 300 ft. away,11 have revealed both the altered
respiration rate cycles and anomalous seedling growth-rate changes already
discussed; and these changes in the standing plants (which from a visual
standpoint appear to be completely unaffected) are often as severe, or even
more so, than the plant alterations found in the flattened crop. This “spillover”
effect has also been found in fields with both geometric and randomly-downed
node-length increases in plant stems have been found to decrease as a function
of sampling distance away from the epicenter of an event, producing
near-perfect linear curves, and in beautiful agreement with the Beer-Lambert
Principle of physics (which describes the absorption of electromagnetic energy
by matter). This Beer-Lambert correlation has been found repeatedly in downed
crops in circular events when they were sampled meticulously enough, and it
has also (in 1997, at Salem, Oregon) been found in standing crop on two
different sides of a geometric formation12 in which there were many
other anomalies present.
finally, in a 1997 New York state crop formation “ sampled with real
diligence by Larry Thomas (one where UFOs were witnessed near or over the
field in which the formation was later discovered), very significant linear
correlations were obtained by examining the relationship between the amount of
magnetite material in the soil and the distance from the epicenters of the
sampled circles. The type of linear distribution obtained was shown to agree
with the fundamental physics of centrifugal forces on particles suspended in a
rotating plasma system. Increased amounts of magnetic particles in the soils
at unusual animal death sites have also been found to decrease in a linear
fashion with sampling distance away from the carcass.
the last 8 years
somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 fieldworkers here in the U.S., in
Canada, England, the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, and Israel have
contributed their time, energy, and financial support in the gathering of
samples. Without them this research could not continue. There is also a large
reporting network of individuals who keep us informed of new events, often
within hours of their occurrence. The sampling and reporting networks are
growing each year, with new groups being trained in the field sampling
protocols; and recently a grant has been awarded BLT to enlarge the geological
aspects of the investigation. In the face of indifference from the general
media and larger society, this cooperation between people of similar curiosity
and purpose, scattered all around the globe, is both essential and very
sustaining. We all know that the constantly recited refrain, “there is no
hard evidence,” is just an indication of ignorance—there is so much “hard”
evidence, and so much more just waiting to be developed, that we’re having a
hard time keeping up.
W.C. 1994. “Anatomical anomalies
in crop formation plants,” Phvsiologia Plantarum
W.C. and Burke, John A. 1995. “Semi-Molten Meteoric Iron Associated with a
Crop Formation,” J. Sci. Exploration
(9:2), 19 1-199.
W.C. and Burke, John A. 1994. “Delineation of Electromagnetic Energy
Influencing Crop Formations,” Lab Report No. 24.
W.C. and Burke, John A. 1994. “Crop Formation Associated with a Cattle
Mutilation,” Lab Report No. 25.
Research Team. 1997. “A Study of Bovine Excision Sites From 1993 to 1997,”
Bovine Excision Report No. Red-06.
W.C. 1988. “Redox-responsive electrodes applied during plant morphogenesis,”
Bioetectrochemistry and Bioenergetics, 19:461476.
W.C. and Burke, J.A. 1996. “Crop Formations & Associated Materials,
Israel, 1995,” Lab Report No. 53.
W.C. and Burke, l.A. 1996. “Meteoritic Material in a Minnesota Crop
Formation 1994-1995,” Lab Report No. 52.
W.C. and Burke, J.A. 1994. “Study
Simulated Crop Formations, 1994,” Lab Report No.
BLT Research Team. 1997. “1997 Maryland (USA)
Study: Gravitropic Responses in Simulated Crop
Laboratory Report No. 86.
W.C. and Burke, J.A. 1996. “Crop Formations: Blue Ball, Maryland, USA, 1995,”
Lab Report No. 51.
Research Team. 1997. “‘Julia Set’ Crop Formation-Stonehenge, UK, July 8,
1996,” Lab Report No. 78.
Research Team. 1998. “Geometric Formation & Associated Randomly Downed
Crop - Salem, Oregon (1997), Lab Report No. 97.
Research Team. 1998. “Crop Formation:
New York 1997,” Lab Report No. 100.